Coach Kevin Muscat offers no excuses for Melbourne Victory's upset 3-0 loss to the Wellington Phoenix in Tuesday's A-League catch-up game.
The defeat, in a match rescheduled after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in New Zealand in mid-November, brought an end to Victory's six-game winning streak.
It also halted any hopes second-placed Melbourne had of closing the gap on league leaders Sydney FC to two points.
"We didn't ask enough questions to really put them under constant pressure -- we got what we deserved tonight," Muscat said, admitting Wellington's blustery northerly gales hadn't helped matters.
"The conditions weren't conducive to our normal style of play, but you've got to adapt."
Victory had their chances to snatch the game back after Roly Bonevacia's 33rd-minute strike, but couldn't capitalise and Wellington finished strongly with late goals to Jacob Tratt and Kosta Barbarouses.
"It could have been very, very different, considering the second and third goal were in the 90th and 93rd minutes," Muscat said.
"There were certainly enough bits and pieces for us to get a goal but all in all we deserved what we got."
The defeat also brings an extra edge to Saturday's away match against Perth Glory, Victory's third game in nine days.
They'll be without defender Jason Geria and forward Fahid Ben Khalfallah, both of whom collected their fifth yellow card of the season against the Phoenix.
Muscat has few concerns about making the long haul trip to Perth so soon after the trek across the Tasman to Wellington.
"It's a good challenge for us to go across there and get our performance back to where it should be," he said.
"We're capable of it -- I'm not going to be asking the players something that's foreign to them, or that they're not capable of.
"We'll head across to Perth with a positive mindset -- there's no reason why we can't get ourselves back up to the standards that we desire very, very quickly."